At the begin of summer, I was thinking of what activities for the kids and family to do in the summer. I happened to hear a genius idea of asking the kids what they want instead of try to second guess. Absolutely genius I say!! So I asked Grace to make a list of things she wants to learn, to do, to have, and places she wants to go. She put quite some thought in it and came up with an elaborate list of things. It’s great because some of the things of that list are things I absolutely want to do as well.

So a whole month of summer break had passed, and there were few things that we were able to check off the list. However, there are things that weren’t on that list but have been spontaneously done and checked off. Things from the “bucket list.” Things that are milestone.

I’m proudly to share two things Grace marked her calendar as huge accomplishment:
1. Prayed and invited Jesus in to her heart.
2. Rode her bicycle without training wheels.

The awesome thing is that it is totally Grace’s decision and I did not influence her at all. She came out of the children ministry classroom and shared with me: “Daddy I prayed and invited Jesus into my heart today.” Best words ever heard!

Summer break is going great so far.

I had a day off yesterday in celebrating President’s Day holiday. There wasn’t any plan other than sleep-in, kick back and relax at home with the kids. Supposingly, I should have worked on finishing up filing the income tax but playing Toy Story game on Wii with Gracie was much more appealing. Or watching Veggie Tales with Benji, my little Batman – that’s what he wants me to call him. And I took a good 2hrs nap just because Benji “saved a room” for me on the bed where he made his ‘house’ with pillows and blankets.

At dinner, I asked Gracie how would she rate today home with Daddy, on a scale of 10. She quickly said “A Ten!!” then thought for few seconds and changed it to a Five. “Only Five?! But we played the Wii game?” I tried to defend for some bonus points. She changed it to a Six. “Okay Gracie. Were you happy today?” She nodded. “Well, how about you draw a picture with the subject is Happiness? What makes you happy” She quickly disappeared to her room, grabbed the sketchbook and pencil, and started scribbling. “Don’t look okay mommy and daddy. I’ll show you when I finish.”

I was done with the dishes, and so did Grace with her artwork. It was a family picture of Mommy, Daddy, Benji and herself, all together, each wears their favorite color shirt and pants. She even titled it “My Happyness Thing”

That was my Six-star day, nothing special, wasn’t perfect, but I love it!!!

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Father and son shaving together

I remember the time I was young watching my dad shaving his facial hair in the morning. He got soap fluffy covered his face, and smoothly ran the stainless steel razor with replaceable double-edge blade down the cheeks. It was fascinating, like the coolest thing ever and I wondered when I could get to do that.

… Fast forward in time …

As I was getting ready for work this morning, Benjamin sat in the bathroom watching me holding an electric razor in my hand.

Benjamin: “What are you doing, daddy?”

Me: “I’m shaving.”

He continued to watch for a few seconds, then said: “Daddy, when I’m big, can I have a ‘mouth lawnmower’ too?” (His word in Vietnamese: cái máy cắt cỏ miệng!)

Me: *laughing out loud*  ”Certainly, Ben. And this, this is called a razor.”

(Image from Getty Images)

Daddy and Benji

I think being parents and watching the kids grow each day is truly a special gift from God. It certainly brings me a clearer perspective on my relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Our little Benjamin is now quite talkative using his limited bilingual vocabulary pools. It is quite funny yet adorable hearing him talk, trying to explain something with only words that he knows. Most of the time, you probably already understood what he is trying to say before he finishes his sentence as he takes his time choosing the words, while the other times you will be guessing what he tries to say as he mixes in English and Vietnamese words altogether.  I can’t keep from laughing every time he finishes his stories. At first, he thought I probably made fun of him, so he blushed and shy away. But then, now he takes it as I am cheering him on. Ha ha ha. I love it!! I absolutely love to hear him telling stories of his day.

It must be the parent instinct or something very cool like superhero power in us that we parents typically already know what our kids try to say before they even say it.  Our ‘parent-sense’ probably tingling all over as we can sense when our children are happy, sad, excited, hungry, in pain, or something bothers them.  Even though we can read their mind most of the time, we still wish our kids would talk to us about what’s going on in their lives. We would give them foods, clothes, toys, things that they like anyways, but we would like to hear they request them first.

Isn’t that strange that this is exactly how things are between us and God, that He always knows what is in our hearts before we even lift up our prayer to Him? Well,  it shouldn’t be a surprise since we are created to His image, His likeness. We are His children, and God loves to hear from us, our stories, our needs, what going on in our lives, what bothering us. Not that God doesn’t know since He is the omniscient One (simple word, He is Mr. Know-it-all), but He longs for that interaction, conversation, relationship that connect we and Him.

“Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord” (Psalm 139:4)

“for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8)

When Benjamin talks now, he often struggles finding words to express his thoughts. That’s when I come in to help him, either complete his thought by saying it for him, or help him saying it right. Again, we learn to do that from the Master. God knows our hearts and He is praying for our weakness.  He even has given the Holy Spirit in us to intercede for us when we cannot find words to express ourselves.

“Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you,  that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:31)

“the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” (Romans 8:26)

The love in our earthly relationship between parents and children is simply just the small scale manifestation of the “truly, madly, deeply” God’s love for us. Our mind just simply cannot fully grasp how strong, how far, how high, how deep God’s love is for us. Then God gives us that gift of being parents so we can have a glimpse, a taste, a somewhat comprehension of His love through the love for our children.

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ” (Matthew 7:9-10)

God knows what in your mind, and your heart. Yet have you talked to Him lately?

I just love road trips. There is just something fun about driving, discovering places, trying new foods, being outdoor, being spontaneous. For Thao, she just doesn’t like the part sitting in the car for too long. I don’t think the kids like sitting in one place either, not to mention the dreadful repetitive question: are we there yet?

With recent little short road trip to Denver with the kids, another issue arise: bathroom break. Benjamin was quite fussy and kept requesting bathroom break like every fifteen minutes. When he was younger, he just slept the entire trip in his car seat, which was a whole lot easier. He’s not wearing diaper anymore, but for little road trip like this, we put him in diaper just in case but he refuses to go in the diaper.

The we have the little guru in back seat giving us tip: “Mommy, usually he wet his pants when you don’t tell him. If you tell him pee in his diaper, he won’t. You should tell him: don’t pee in the diaper, then he will!” Then, she turns to her brother: “Don’t wet your diaper, ok?” I couldn’t help but laughing out loud during that little therapy session. She already uses reverse psychology at her age.

This gets me thinking of the huge “road trip” the Israel took from Egypt to Canaan, the promised land. Now, that is some road trip, 40 years long, crossing many desserts – not so much of a scenic drive. There was a shorter route but of course due to their constant complaining, God made them took the long route, wandering in the dessert.

Forty years, can you imagine that? There were lots of them, like sand on the seashore, like stars in the skies, with donkey, camel, pets, cattles, belongings, kids. That is one heck of a trip. I don’t know how Moses did it, leading millions of people, knowing when to start moving, when to stop, what to do for foods. Then, I got to curious how the bathroom breaks were handle. That trip was a miracle in itself.

Road Trip

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Lately, I notice how Grace and Benjamin play and interact, and their differences in solving problem just amaze me.

When we give Ben a toy still in its package, he immediately goes for the “main content”, yanking it off the box, then try to press on everything that might be a button, or flip it up side down to locate a switch. If nothing happens he gives it couple bangings against the floor. If still nothing, he concludes: “het pin roi!” (translation: it’s out of battery!) and will try to find a screw driver to open it up.

As for Grace, she goes for …the manual booklet first. Ha ha ha. She carefully pulls out the piece of paper from the box, spreads it across the table, and starts reading the instruction and follows the steps. When she got stuck, then she goes to daddy.

(On a side note, I’m so proud of her on the reading part. She’ll read just about anything she sets her eyes on, whether it’s her Bible, her books, Mommy’s book, back of a cereal box, or.. a toy’s manual booklet!)

The other day I bought them Happy Meals at McDonalds (bad parent, I know! Lol. This is not a frequent thing so it’s OK .. ha ha I hope), so they both got the toys that come with. Benjamin already gave me the Iron Man toy so I could turn it on for him while he’s eating the fries. I was driving away from the parking lot, finding the switch on the back of the toy and flipping it on, Grace shouted from the back seat: “No Daddy! That’s not correct. You have to pull the tape off on the chest first. That’s step one!” I looked in the mirror and saw Grace already had the instruction sat squarely on her legs with the toy already blinking light on her hand.

Isn’t that something?! We are blessed that God gave us 2 beautiful children with very unique in personalities and characteristics, which make our parenthood quite flavorful and completed.

Today I learned:

Playing Tetris (remember that addictive blocks falling game that we used to still play all the time?) can really develop amazing skill in fitting many tupper ware containers into a lunch box.

Actually what I really learned is appreciation for what my wife prepares for me each day.

Fitting these containers into lunch box requires skills

This was the funny conversation we had last Saturday as we decided where to go for lunch after helping Linh-Phuc moving to their new place.

Linh: Let’s go lunch. Where do you guys want to go?

After many choices brought up with the usual discussion of have-you-tried-what-that-place I-haven’t-been-to-but-heard-it-is-good, we still couldn’t decide on a place. Somehow, the common reply such as “anywhere is fine with me” doesn’t seem to work with the decision on where to eat either, because usually one option is mentioned, another option immediately follows. This happens ALL THE TIME. Ha ha ha.

Bao: So, Damon [whom has been quiet], what do you want to eat?

Damon: How hungry are you guys?

Me: I am not super hungry but I could eat.

Damon: Well, I’m thinking somewhere with a big salad …

Bao (joked): Uhmm … I’ll never ask your opinion again. Ha ha ha.

Me: Wait! He’s not finished

Damon: Right … with a side of a 16oz juicy steak, one full rack of ribs, and a slide of ham with mashed potatoes and gravy on top.

Me: Exactly!

After all the laughters, yet we still didn’t know where to go for lunch. Few minutes later, we headed out a Korean restaurant. Don’t know how we came up with that! We’re been to this restaurant before and the foods were still great. Wasting time making the decision, I know but we’re just being … us!

In Daddy's Hand

Yes, I am saved more than 15 years ago, by God’s grace. But He just doesn’t stop there; with His everlasting love, He constantly saves me, spiritually and physically. His grace is still abundantly flowing as He cares for me.

Last Friday, I had a day off from work so I got around to do couple fix-ups around the house. I am not, emphasize not, a handyman type. However when things around the house break down, either I have to pay someone to do it or step up to the plate. I’m not financially blessed, so I choose the later. Well, the door bell has been broken for a quite a while now. I bought a new bell and new ringer to replace the old ones, but that did not fix the problem. Maybe the issue is in the transformer or the wiring. So I traced the wiring that lead to the transformer sit to the side of the furnace.

Before getting started, I switched off the power to the furnace from the main power box, or so I thought. I flipped the light switch and the light was not on, so I then proceeded disassembling the electric switch and the wiring to the transformer. Apparently I was being stupid for not testing the line appropriately with the right tool, but then again I am no electrician and I should not have done what I did. At that time, I am pretty sure my hands were touching the hot wire as I disassembled the connection. Until I was connecting the last wire of the new transformer to the power switch, I felt a tingling jolt on the tip of my finger. “Hmm, that’s weird” I thought. As I placed the wire around the screw to tight it down, suddenly BAM! sparks of electricity flared up causing a small flashing fire lightly burned the plastic switch.  To my reflex, I jumped up from where I was sitting, and a little bit freaked out at that moment. I thought for sure I had turn off the power to the furnace, so I went out to the main controller box to double check. There I saw the switch I turned off, it was below the one that I intended. The right switch now shut off, laid in the middle position due to the wiring mishap earlier.

I made sure it stayed off, and finished the wiring in hurry, but couldn’t help to think how didn’t I got shocked earlier when I dissembled the wiring. For whatever the reason was, if it wasn’t God who saved and protected me, I would be … done in, toasted, BBQ style. Yes, I am saved! Thank you Lord!

Praise God for He is the keeper and systainer of my life. In His hands, that’s where I want to be, to remained. Are you in good hand?

(Image borrowed from http://kathwilliamson.blogspot.com/)

Today we celebrate our 8th year of marriage. It has been that fast. Looking back, there were up and down, and challenges in our marriage. But then there were also lots of joy and laughters, love and intimacy. Most importantly, there was God – the glue, the keeper and sustainer of our love.

We can always pursue our dreams, chase after jobs and careers, entertain self, hang out with friends… but ultimately real life and meaning of life is where family at.

Past 8 years were great, yet I’m looking for even better of many years to come. There are still lots of things to learn, to experience, and I am looking forward to them. I want to be a better man, better husband to my wife, better father to my children. Realizing it’s a lifetime goal, I still still keep working at it no matter how long it takes.

Our family went to Steaksmith to celebrate our anniversary. We haven’t been back to this place for quite a while. Foods were alright but we did have a great family time together. At dinner Thao was explaining our reason to celebrate to Grace: “It was Mommy’s wedding 8 years ago this day.” Grace pondered: “Who did you marry to?” Then it was just dawn on her. Silly Gracie!

While we were waiting for our desert, Grace asked me if I want to play a game to which I said yes. She then gave me options: “Daddy which level do you want to play: easy, medium or hard?” I chose medium. Then she proceeded and said: “Medium? Ok then we can play ‘I Spy’ game because ‘Guess The Thing I Am Thinking’ game is hard. …. LOL. Gotta love her!

We played the “hard’ game, but I gave up on the drive home because we ran out of things to think about in the car.

Happy anniversary honey. I love you!

The thing with vacation is right after you get back from your trip, there are so many things to do and you just want another vacation right away.  That just how I feel. I’ve been playing catch-up with works, chores, and many other things.

We had a wonderful vacation in early January. We were very excited and looking forward to this trip, but now it is thing in past now. It’s came and gone so fast. There are lots of things to write about, the experience, pictures… but please bare with meas I try to *whip* them out as fast as I can. For now, you can check out some of the vacation pictures updated in the Photo Gallery.

Wow another year , and a busy yet wonderful season of Christmas have just passed. I meant to update the blog with what was happening, but just one thing after another and I just couldn’t keep up. Well, it looks like a series of events are just going to happen pretty soon, and I am very excited about. I don’t want to keep piling things up to write about, but I don’t have enough time to tell every detail. So I be brief.

Let’s started with Thanksgiving. We didn’t have a church retreat this year. For the whole long break, we hang out, stayed up late, played lots of Bomberman on Playstation 3. It was a lot of fun. We spent Thanksgiving day and eating dinner at Mom and Dad. It was great.

Then started Christmas. Grace was very excited and wanted to decorate the Christmas tree this year. She decorated it all by herself and did a wonderful job. Tis the season, our church had the annual Bible Memorization contest. This year it was only 8 verse in Psalm. That was quite fun.

Christmas is always a busy season at church as we prepared for the annual special Christmas program. This year, we did not just one drama as the main program. We had carols combined with worships, we have choir songs, children songs, duet, trio, fun skit, sermon… Due to the complication of choosing the location to held the Christmas program, we had the service early than previous year, on the 19th. I felt like Christmas came too soon, and we didn’t have enough time to practice. It seemed overwhelming, but all things came together at the end. We had 200+ attendees, and dinner was served afterward. It was great.

Since we had early Christmas celebration, we felt much relax on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We went to Winter Wonderland, a Christmas Special at New Life Church. It was packed!! They had 3 services, back to back, and traffic was a mess. The attendance was 14000+ for 3 services. We hang out at home, open presents on Christmas Day, and have Christmas lunch at Mom and Dad. It was good time.

Before the year ended, the youth hang out and had dinner together at TGI Friday’s. The church also celebrated the birthday of everyone in 4th quarter. It was funny to see Benjamin lined up to receive his birthday card.

To celebrate the New Year, the youth hang out at Duc-Huyen’s house. We had foods, played gift exchange, and Anh Duc showed pictures of his trip in Iraq. It was quite funny that he mixed some quite disturbed pictures among the scenery pictures.

So… 2010 has started. I’m very excited for what’s ahead. There are goals, resolution to achieve, grace and blessings to come, lessons to learn. I am looking forward to all of it, and I want to document them all here, as much as I can. See you in 2010. Have wonderful New Year, you!

See pictures:
Christmas Program at church
Winter Wonderland
Christmas with Family
Year End